


Daisuki

by Hikarilie



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: All the anime tropes I can fit down your throat, Cute, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Hannah is a fucking weeb, Light Angst, Or more like colleagues to mutual weebs to friends to useless lesbians to lovers, Slow Burn, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-09-05 01:06:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16800643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hikarilie/pseuds/Hikarilie
Summary: Hannah England's darkest and most embarrassing secret - that she is a closeted anime and manga fan - has been discovered by the last person she wished: Atsuko Kagari. But in an unexpected turn of events, she finds a colleague to share her hobby with in the brunette. Where will this uncommon friendship lead?A Hanakko fic.





	1. Weebeginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah's secret is discovered. How will Akko react?

Saturday morning, that most beloved day of the week where Luna Nova students were free to enjoy their days instead of spending several hours with their butts glued to old, uncomfortable chairs and listening to insanely boring lectures while beautiful, sunny days passed by outside, unappreciated and unenjoyed.

That’s how Akko saw it, anyhow.

And while she could have slept in today, her body, full of pent-up energy, didn’t allow her to sleep past the rise of the sun, and honestly? She had no problem with that today. She was a brand new and more dedicated Atsuko Kagari, who would be facing that majestic weekend sprawling out right before her, shouting a loud and hearty ‘carpet dish!’

Latin wasn’t her strongest point.

She had been skipping down to the cafeteria in red shorts and a white shirt, humming a song. It was quite early in the morning, so the hallways were completely devoid of the usual mill of adolescent girls.

Closing her eyes, Akko started singing, enjoying the peaceful morning silence that was only occasionally rippled by the chirps of birds perched along the trees and balconies of the academy.

So, when another girl carrying a stack of items rounded a corner at the same time as her, she was caught unaware and bumped head-first into her, knocking both down to the floor. The girl screamed as both her and the stack toppled to the floor.

“Achacha…” Akko rubbed the sore spot in her head where she had hit her head. The other girl, meanwhile, was muttering curses under her breath, hazel eyes sparked with annoyance as they stared at the pile of books and paper she’d been carrying strewn across the floor.

“Of all the reckless things…” The girl finally recovered from a momentary dizziness, settling on the unattentive brunette. “Ah, Akko. Why am I not surprised you would be the one to walk around so carelessly?”

“Oh, Hannah!” Akko sprung to her feet, looking at the Brit who’d fallen on her bottom after the crash. “What are you doing up so early in the morning?”

The auburn-haired girl scoffed, raising an eyebrow. “I could ask you the same thing. Is hell freezing over, so that Atsuko Kagari herself is waking up at a reasonable time?”

“Hey!” Akko stomped a foot indignantly. “I’m not _that_ bad! Even I can be fancy and enjoy the morning too, ya know?”

“Since when is that a fancy thing?”

“I’unno, Diana’s the one who’s always waking up early, so I kinda think of it as a fancy people thing.”

Hannah sighed. “No, it’s a _responsible_ person thing, not that _you_ would know. And to answer your question, I, ever the diligent student, went out to the bookstore to purchase... study material. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s places I’ve got to be.” Standing on one knee, Hannah started picking up her things, avoiding looking Akko in the eye. ‘ _Is Hannah nervous or is it just me?_ ’

“Well, since I kinda bumped into you I guess I’ll help! Even if you were kind of a jerk.”

Hannah rolled her eyes, setting a Magic Linguistics book on top of a botanic guide. “Tch, whatever, just don’t set fire to any of my things.”

Akko stuck her tongue out at the Brit and started picking up the books and files, trying her darndest best to make it look tidy even though her attempt was more akin to a layman’s recreation of the Pisa Tower.

At last, she reached out for a rolled up sheet of paper that used glossy poster paper instead of the office paper grammage everything else had. “Ooh, what’s this?” Though it was somewhat of a breach of privacy, Akko couldn’t help her impulsive curiosity as she unfurled the poster-sized sheet.

“Wait, no, don’t touch that! I don’t need any help…!”

A long moment of silence stretched out between the two. Akko’s eyes had shrunk to pinpricks as she held the unrolled poster in front of her, not yet daring to accept the reality of what she was witnessing.

Hannah, meanwhile, was frozen in place. Terror was the word that most faithfully described how she felt. Her image, her reputation, her _life_ were now hanging in balance, for the biggest idiot in the entire Luna Nova had just found out her darkest, deepest, most protected secret - one not even her best friend, Barbara, was privy to.

“Hannah,” spoke the brunette, her voice a tiny squeak, “is this a poster of-”

The poster was ripped out of her hands and thrown to the floor, Hannah touching it with as much delicacy as one would an object infected with a highly contagious disease. And it hurt her to do that, because that poster was _very_ finely printed, as one would expect of someone with as much aesthetic taste as her.

Then, something was pressed against Akko’s chest. She looked down and found Hannah pressing a wallet into her bust, head drooping.

“Alright, how much do you want to never speak of this?”

“Eh?!”

Akko recoiled, confused. “What are you talking about?”

The Brit was forced to look up, her face flushed in a deep blush as she struggled to speak through her embarrassment. “What I’m talking about? It’s obvious, isn’t it? You know my secret now, and if I don’t do anything, you’re going to run your stupid mouth off to the entire school and ruin my life, that’s what.”

“You know, you’re not making a very nice case for me to not talk about whatever by calling me stupid so much, you know?” Akko crossed her arms, puffing her cheeks.

Hannah grit her teeth. She had a point. Though Hannah and Akko had become acquaintances - instead of bully and bullied - after the Missile Crisis, they hadn’t fully demilitarized the invisible borders between them. But if she wanted Akko’s help, she’d have to be nice, like it or not.

“Sorry, sorry.” Hannah took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to coalesce her frustrations at the brunette into one single place in herself before pushing them out. “Just, I don’t want word to get out, that’s all.”

“Well, I mean, it isn’t that bad of a fandom!” Akko rubbed the back of her neck, bending down to crease out the folds that had formed in the [ poster](https://imagesyoulike.com/images/00000/32x24/13784.jpg) that depicted four girls playing by the seashore. “You don’t have to be afraid of people finding out you like B-tier waifus.”

“ _Excuse_ you? The _Hyperdimension Neptunia_ girls are amazing waifus, and-” Hannah had to stop herself. Somehow she had contracted the run-your-mouth-off-itis condition Akko was so horribly infected with. “Wait. You think _that_ is what I’m embarrassed about?”

Akko cocked her head to the side, blinking. “It isn’t?”

With a long, drawn-out groan, the Brit sighed. “Of course not, you…” She bit her tongue before saying ‘idiot’. She really needed to work on that whole ‘not being a jerk’ thing. “Ahem. What I _am_ embarrassed of is people finding out I’m someone who indulges in such, uhm, entertainment.”

“Oooh!” Akko giggled into her hand. “So Diana was embarrassed about being a Shiny Chariot fan, Barbara about reading _Night Fall_ , and now you? What’s with you aristocrat people and being ashamed of the things you like?”

Hannah’s hand moved up to the loose strand of hair that always hung above her left eyebrow, fiddling nervously with it. “Well, not everyone can just go around and shout out to the entire world about their fandoms like you do, Akko. I have an image to keep and a family name to uphold.”

“Is being a weeb that big of a deal, though?”

“I am _not_ a weeb! I just... happen to have a soft spot for certain forms of media originating from your country.”

Akko patted Hannah’s shoulder, completely ignoring the auburn-haired witch’s protest as she wiped a fake tear away. “Finally, someone else to talk about this season’s anime. Oh, most beautiful of days~”

“Excuse me?” The Brit stepped to the side, face closing into a scowl. “I am glad you will not out my tastes to anyone else, but how did you ever take that to mean I’d become your anime buddy? We’re only barely friends. Knock it off.”

Akko gave her a lopsided smirk and giggled evilly. “Sure thing, then. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to grab breakfast before I go back to my room to watch the new episode of _YagaKimi_ on my laptop~” Placing the dangerously balanced stack she’d created on Hannah’s arms, Akko walked towards the cafeteria without another word, humming happily to herself as she counted down on her mind for a reaction.

“W-wait, _YagaKimi_ has an anime? Did you say 'laptop'? Akko!”

Hook, line and sinker. Akko didn’t say anything as she strolled away, an excitable Hannah with a precarious pile of papers soon on her heels.

→→→→→ 

“And then,” said Akko while stuffing another spoonful of cereal into her mouth, “Constanze got me internet access.”

With a twitching eye, Hannah wiped the drops of milk Akko had spat on her face by talking while chewing with a napkin. “So, let’s get this straight-”

Akko cut her off. “I’m not!” She punched the table with a fist while snickering, delighting at her own joke. “Sorry, sorry.”

Hannah sighed, her hand caressing her forehead as she felt a headache coming on. “You’re telling me you’ve not only brought contraband, but are also using forbidden tech in the school grounds?“

“Geeze, when you put it that way it sounds really ba-”

“I want in.”

The brunette blinked, then squinted her eyes, suspicious at the change of heart. “What are you up to, England? You’re too much of a goody two shoes to break the rules just like that.”

Looking around the cafeteria first to make sure no one would snoop into their conversation, Hannah leaned close to Akko’s ear to whisper - an act that, for some reason, sent a chill down the brunette’s spine.

“I wouldn’t break the rules normally, but honestly, I’m _desperate_. Luna Nova doesn’t allow us to use internet outside the crystal balls, with all the censoring, and I don’t really have a good excuse to skip over to a cyber-café for an afternoon without anyone finding out I’m into this sorta stuff. That’s why I was out so early, to pick up the poster I ordered from the post office before anyone could catch me doing it.” She placed her hands on Akko’s shoulders, shaking them while looking frazzled. ”Do you know how many seasons behind I am on anime?!”

“Oof.” Akko patted the auburn-haired girl’s shoulder, feeling genuinely sorry for her. “But why can’t you tell Diana or Barbara? They wouldn’t laugh at you or anything. I mean, come on, Barbara is going over to that con in two weeks with Lotte and they’re gonna do _Night Fall_ cosplays, for heck’s sake!”

The Brit’s fingers drummed on the table. “You’re right, but I don’t know, I just… I like things as they are now, okay? Everyone has this image of me as a composed girl from a well-regarded family.” She sighed, eyes falling to her hand on the table. “What would people think if they discovered a daughter of the England family is into stuff like yuri manga?”

“Oh, so you like yuri, huh?” Akko was grinning like a mad man.

“Each moment with you is another inch deeper into this hole I’m digging.”

“Well,” Akko pointed a jotted out thumb to herself while supporting herself on the table with an elbow. “This cutie, unlike you, isn’t into destroying people’s lives with gossip. Your secret’s safe with me.”

Much differently from what the brunette expected, Hannah deflated, her brow creasing.

“Hey. I know I was a jerk before, but you don’t have to keep hammering that in. I’m trying to be better, you know.” She looked into Akko’s eyes, those large, shimmering, and beautiful (huh, what was _that_ thought?) eyes with determination. And suddenly, the Japanese felt extremely guilty - it was true that the Brit had been trying, and had made a lot of progress even if the two of them would still squabble a lot.

Honestly, Hannah’s comments didn’t always feel mean anymore. Sometimes they felt more like the teasing banter she’d exchange with Amanda. Maybe Akko had failed to notice the auburn-haired girl felt more strongly about her past actions than she imagined.

“You’re right. Sorry, Hannah.” She stuck out one of her callous hands to the Brit, who eyed the rough skin of Akko’s hand cautiously. “Look, let’s just agree on being friends?” They had been interacting for the past months but never really gone past the point of being colleagues.

“Well…” Hannah took a few moments, thinking. “It’s not like I haven’t been kinda mean every now and then to you, despite what I said. We can both work on making our… friendship, I suppose, better.” With a firm but still gentle grasp, she shook Akko’s hand.

‘ _Huh,_ ’ Akko thought to herself, finding a sudden interesting in analyzing the hand holding her own. ‘ _Her hand is so soft. Does she use moisturizer or something? It’s just so comfortable. And her fingers are long but not bony too...’_

“Akko.”

“Eh?!”

“Let go of my hand now, if you please.”

“Gyah!” Akko let go of Hannah’s hand, shaking her own as though she’d just touched a hot surface and burned herself. “S-sorry,” she apologized, her ears tinted with red. Why the heck did she hold on for so long to her hand?

‘ _Perfect. Great way to make yourself look approachable, Akko._ ’

“S-so,” the brunette stammered, eager to move away from the embarrassing moment, “you said you wanted in?”

Hannah, who looked a bit, well, not uncomfortable, but disconcerted from the handshake, nodded. “I want to indulge in watching anime again, yes, ashamed as I am to admit that. I miss it. So, do you wanna help me with that or not?” she asked, somewhat briskly, but Akko didn’t mind. She was just happy Hannah trusted her.

“Yosh! Finish up and come with me then, little kouhai, for there’s still nani to be sore!”

“No comment.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fic from yours truly! I've figured out an okay writing routine for myself so this one should be getting somewhat frequent updates.
> 
> I'm putting The Day Luna Nova Went Gay on hold for a bit, since it's been hard writing for it, but I'll be getting back to it before too long, promise.


	2. Kagariland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko leads Hannah into her secret room.

After a quick trip to the blue team’s dorm to drop her things off, Hannah followed Akko to hers.

She wasn’t familiar to this dormitory wing. Even though the architecture was roughly identical, being so far removed from the luxurious dormitory she and her roommates shared to enter the place someone like Akko resided was akin to walking into a shoddy back-alley bar to her - unfamiliar, dirty and plebeian.

That thought made her realize just how much she needed to deconstruct her holier-than-thou way of thinking.

Akko stopped in front of her room, placing an index finger over her lips and saying “shhh!”, a sound intended to be secretive but so loud it might as well have been a siren. The Brit questioned whether this girl actually knew the meaning of discretion, then mentally slapped herself for a question with such an obvious answer. She absolutely did not.

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Why are you shushing me, Kagari?”

“Lotte and Sucy don’t know that Constanze got me internet access and a laptop and all that, since Conz asked me to keep it a secret.”

“Fine, but how do you intend to use it, then? Your cramped little hole in the w…” Hannah bit her tongue before rephrasing, “ _your room_ isn’t exactly large enough for you to hide that.”

Akko smirked, a confident curl of the lips that suggested some secret trick up in her sleeve. It felt weird for Hannah to be on the receiving end of one of those, what with her usually being one of the queen bees grinning from above down on the student body, her tricks usually being mean gossip and secrets.

The bumbling brunette had grown into a far more self-assured witch over the course of their first year of school, and some part of Hannah, strangely enough, felt an admiration towards the girl for it. Why admiration and not just respect, Hannah knew not. Maybe she was glad Akko wouldn’t let anyone treat her as a doormat like the auburn-haired girl herself had done.

Without another word, Akko creaked open the door to her room and held Hannah’s hand to pull her along, completely missing how this display of physical familiarity affected the Brit.

It was, as Hannah would define it later while sorting through this day, flummoxing. Not just because, save for Barbara, she hadn’t shared her personal space with anyone else in forever - and she certainly did not expect a happy-go-lucky dunce like Akko, of all people, to be the one who would invade that polished and particular realm -, but also because their earlier hold of hands was still lingering on the back of her mind like low white noise.

Once the room opened, Hannah instantly recoiled at the sight of the disheveled room that reeked of botany and reminded her of a patchwork quilt, sewing together the very distinct tastes and aesthetics of its three inhabitants. It was an offense to her senses, so used as those were to Victorian furnishings.

This wasn’t so much disgust - as she might have labeled it in previous times - as it was alienness.

Akko’s roommates, both the one with the full moon spectacles that had been occupying Barbara’s time and the crazy potions one, were still soundly asleep.

Hannah followed her impromptu partner in crime as she guided the Brit by the hand through the creaky floorboards to the lower bunk of a double bunk bed. Both sat on the mattress, which made Hannah’s eyebrows shoot up, since it felt like a slab of stone under the girl’s bottom. How was Akko always so energetic and full of life when sleeping on a bed as uncomfortable as this?

She felt sorry for the aloof Japanese, who was sorely missing out on proper and relaxing sleep, a luxury the ostentatious witch was privy to even away from home. The thought of inviting Akko to take a nap on her expensive and very comfortable bed crossed Hannah’s mind.

It was crumpled up, stomped on and burned when the second implications of that crossed the mind of the England, who was now fighting down a blush.

“So…” she spoke, once the mess of thoughts inside her head was properly dealt with by means of sheer pushing them into oblivion. She also pointedly ignored how Akko hadn’t let go of her hand - fighting it was likely not worth the trouble, that’s what she reasoned with herself. “I assume you didn’t invite me _just_ to stare at Mushroom Maniac over there all day?”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Akko said between giggles. She pointed to the bedpost to Hannah’s right and made a gesture for her to push it.

Hannah raised an eyebrow, her eyes sliding over to the inconspicuous piece of furniture. She clicked her tongue. “You’re strange, Kagari.” Her hand hovered above the wood arc. “Frankly, I question why I am even spending time withaaa _aaAAA_ ** _AAH_ **!”

The next thing the descendant of the England house knew, the world had seemed to give out beneath her and she was falling, the Red Team’s dorm becoming an increasingly diminished sight above her as the duo descended into the abyss. Desperate, she clung on to to the only anchor she could find, all the while screaming at the top of her lungs.

Just as quickly as she’d lost her seating, she found it again when her butt collided with solid metal in an unholy waltz of buttock pain.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm her rushing heart, she opened her eyes - which she had shut tight at some point - and the first thing she saw was that she was inside a mine cart, of all things, which had started moseying down a track.

The second was that she was clinging to Akko’s waist in a rather compromising way.

“Comfy?” snickered Akko.

“Silence,” Hannah squeaked out with as much composure as she could (little, if you must know), untangling herself from the other witch and sitting herself properly inside the wagon. She turned away from Akko’s stupidly cute grin and pretended to fix her hair, when in reality she was attempting to hide the red tint coloring her cheeks and ears.

With her back still turned to the brunette, Hannah griped, “you could have warned me of that, you know.”

“Yeah,” Akko rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly and stuck her tongue out, “I just thought it’d be more fun if it was a surprise. Sorry~”

Hannah sighed, now calmed down from her panic. “Fine, fine, I forgive you.” She’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel more _alive_ than usual. The Brit leaned an arm over the cart and bumped a fist twice against the metal. “Where are we going with this thing?”

“After I helped Constanze during the Ghost Hunt, she built me a special secret room as thanks!” On cue, the cart stopped and the bottom opened, dropping the girls on a rugged and worn-out couch. Hannah had a more graceful fall this time, though she still landed flat on her face.

Rubbing her red nose, the Brit moaned. “This place smells like cheap snacks.”

The room wasn’t very large, or organized for that matter, but it was cozy.

A desk on the opposite wall held a computer - an actual one, not just an uncomfortable crystal ball with automatically censored websites. The hardware had been mercilessly covered in all manners of gaudy stickers, many inspired on that performer Akko wouldn’t shut up about.

Shelves on the wall were packed with small books the size of which Hannah readily recognized as that of manga volumes. Some had spines that read in English while others were in a language she couldn’t read, certainly Japanese. The little weeb in her envied Akko’s natural proficiency at the eastern language. What space wasn’t filled with those had figures, some simple while others looked very expensive.

Posters of cartoons and magic shows lined most of the walls, except for one spot that held a mural of photos of Akko and other people, some being from Luna Nova, others probably friends and family from Japan. Bundles of clothes and empty bags of snacks lay strewn across the floor.

This room decidedly screamed ‘Akko’ with as much lung power as its owner.

“Welcome,” Akko stood up on a foot and twirled around her own axis, a presenting palm reaching outwards, “to Kagariland!”

In Akko’s head, a kazoo belted out a fanfare and it was pretty funny.

Hannah, without such an active imagination, was left to stare at the girl’s ridiculous pose and legs, laid bare for all to see in her short shorts.

Staring at cute girls had become an issue ever since Hannah had her bi awakening of sorts due to Amanda and her unbecoming habit of dressing up like a boy. The problem was repeating itself today with this adorable girl and her outrageous taste for revealing clothing.

“How inspired,” Hannah scoffed, rolling her eyes, more to pry her sight from the cute bundle of energy than to be sarcastic. “This place could certainly use a fix-me-upper, but, beggars can’t be choosers I suppose.”

“Well, I mean, it’s no five-star hotel but it’s got its pros. Here,” Akko lifted the heavy-looking couch cushion to Hannah’s side (had she always been this strong?) and retrieved a bag of wrapped candies from underneath it.

She then threw it on Hannah’s lap. “Chocolate mint, on the house, m’lady!”

“I’ll pass, thank you kindly.” Hannah daintily took the parcel off her lap, holding it between her index and thumb finger like someone might hold dirty underwear. She wasn’t used to eating caloric snacks, much less ones from such dubious origins.

“Your loss,” Akko said, needing not more than a beat to take the bag off Hannah’s hands and stuff her mouth with candy like an eager child. She skipped over to the desk, her free hand opening a drawer and scavenging the insides for a while until, with an overly sweet giggle of ‘yay!’, she found her bounty - a laptop, colored the same shade of red as its owner’s eyes; Akko brought it over to the couch, plopping down besides Hannah.

“This is my precious child!” she spoke while chewing, opening the laptop and booting the system up. The screen transitioned to a wallpaper of a character Hannah didn’t recognize, a girl with long pink hair, a red eyeshadow that reminded her of Avery, and a peculiar uniform with an X-shaped tie in front of what seemed like a mecha with a… moe face?

‘ _This is such trash._ ’

Noticing Hannah’s brow furrowing in curiosity, Akko spoke up. “Oh, that’s from an original anime that aired a few seasons ago, I guess you might not have heard of it.”

“Couldn’t say I have, what with all the schoolwork keeping me, but not that it matters. This girl and that,” she pointed to the screen and drew a circle with her index finger, “mecha _thing_ look like they’re trying to pander _really_ hard to some demographic. I don’t know if I’d be able to enjoy whatever it is the anime’s about with all the fanservice distracting me.”

“Said the Neptunia trash.”

“Shush, it’s not the same thing.”

With a lopsided grin, Akko proceeded to log into her account for an anime streaming service. “So, what are you in the mood to watch, Han Han?”

The Brit’s eye twitched. “Not even Barbara has this sugary of a nickname for me. Are you like this with everyone?”

Akko hummed, placing a finger under her chin and pouting her lips in thought. “Well, I guess so. If you want to see your friends’ smiles, you gotta get through to them, right? I think having nicknames for each other is a nice start to get there.”

“Of course you’d be this saccharine,” the auburn-haired girl conceded. “I suppose that attitude would extend to your roommates as well? I dread to think how the Manbavaran girl would react to being referred to by a pet name.”

“Oh, I did go for Susu once! It took me a week to get all those cursed black scabs off my body,” Akko spoke with a nonchalant voice and ended with a snort, while Hannah paled a bit at how casually the brunette spoke of being on the receiving end of a forbidden curse.

Hannah sighed, hand going up to fix her hair, one of her tics for when she felt exasperated. “Well, whatever. You’re too much of an immovable force of nature for me to expect you to not call me that, aren’t you?”

A blink, and Akko was now inches apart from her complexion. “Now do me!”

The sudden reduction in physical space seemed to also reduce the British girl’s space of information processing. Hannah’s thoughts went into overdrive for a second, blood rushing to her cheeks. “W-what?”

As uncaring as ever for the concept of personal space, Akko proceeded to boop her nose against the Brit’s, grinning a very toothy grin. “Give me a nickname too!”

Hannah blinked. “Oh. That’s what you meant.”

“What else could it be?” Akko blinked innocently.

“Nothing at all.” Hannah bit the inside of her cheek before inhaling and exhaling deeply. “A nickname, you say?” She looked up, towards the ceiling, her chin brushing against the brunette’s nose in the act. “Yeah, I’m not used to that kind of stuff. Huh…” she droned, drumming her fingers against her thigh.

“How about… Ak…?”

There was a beat. Akko deadpanned at Hannah, who scoffed.

“It’s hardly my fault that you already have a nickname you use all the time.”

Akko pressed a finger into the witch’s chest. “Come on, dive into that shimmering creative part of your soul, Han Han! Believe in the Akko who believes in you!”

“Is it possible that you speak only in references?” She placed a hand on her forehead, massaging her brow. “And why are we even wasting time with this?”

Puffing a cheek, Akko looked downwards, seeming just a little bit crestfallen. “I just don’t know where to start with our friendship, since we are like, you know, pretty different? Sorry if this is such a bother to you, though, we can just not do it. I won’t mind.”

Akko turned back to her laptop and started to half-heartedly scroll through thumbnails for different shows. Her eyes seemed like they had dimmed down, as if the sparkling crimson of her irises had somehow lost its fire.

And even though she couldn’t really name a reason as to why, it tugged painfully at Hannah’s chest to see Akko look like that.

Maybe it’s because that cute idiot just wasn’t the same without her unending go-lucky attitude, that reckless passion that Hannah once ridiculed. No, that depressed look was completely wrong on someone liked Akko. And she’d been very harsh in calling her attempts at building a bond a waste of time - if the Brit treated her just as a means to an end, that being watching anime, it’d be downright nasty of her.

Hannah wouldn’t stand for being the one who took that smile away from her, even if for a reason she’d usually consider asinine. And so, like a diver reaching into an unknown sea, she delved into that creative part of her soul Akko believed to exist.

Said brunette had just boringly flipped to another genre category when she heard Hannah’s quiet, abashed voice sound out.

“Koi.”

The brunette tore her sight away from the screen to look at Hannah, wide-eyed.

“Huh?”

“Koi. You know, like the pond fish. It’s a pretty well-known symbol of Japanese culture, and I know you transformed into a fish to help Professor Pisces once. So…” Hannah timidly twiddled her fingers, refusing to fully look at the girl sitting by her side. “That should work as a nickname, right?”

The heir of the Englands really didn’t know why this simple action flustered her as it did. Maybe, she thought, it was just how opening oneself up to the world around them went, trekking the uncharted territory of casual social interactions was likely to make one feel awkward.

When the brunette failed to respond after a far too long silence, the auburn-haired girl glanced at her, inquisitive. “What, was it really that bad?”

What she also didn’t know is that Akko was also flustered. “N-no, it was okay, I like it,” Akko started, her hands gaining a mind of their own as she begun gesticulating while stammering. “I-it’s just that koi also means…” Her voice died out with a squeak.

“Means what?” readily asked the auburn-haired girl, unconsciously gripping the hem of her shirt, worried she’d somehow insulted Akko by misusing a Japanese word.

“I-it’s also our word for, well,” she coughed into her hand, shrunk irises darting everywhere but Hannah’s direction, “r-romantic love…”

“Oh.” Hannah was more frustrated than embarrassed at the information. “I worked so hard to think that one up, but I guess it’s no good. Tsk.”

“B-but it’s fine, I think!” Akko placed her hands together, bowing her head, as though she felt apologetic for raising an objection to Hannah’s suggestion. “Words have a lot of different meanings in a lot of languages, right? It’s not a big deal, nope! I mean, it almost sounds like you’re calling me _coy_ , which I am not. S-so…”

“You sure you’re fine with it? You look, well, disconcerted,” was the most gentle term the England could find to describe Akko looking utterly frazzled and ready to disappear inside her clothes.

“Yes!” Akko shouted several decibels too loud, making her companion flinch slightly. She turned it down a notch, but her voice still oozed with fire and passion as she took the auburn-haired girl’s hands in hers, eyes now filled with all the twinkling stars of the Ursa Major.

“It’s the nickname you caringly came up with for me, so I’ll be honored to accept it, Han Han!” She undid her hold on Hannah’s hands, clasping her palms together and bowing so deeply her nose was poking her belly. Hannah rolled her eyes as far as her corneas allowed at the display, a small tinge of pink finding its way to her cheeks as she patted that stupid little ponytail the aloof witch so proudly displayed.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome, Koi,” the nickname didn’t roll off easily off her tongue, but she couldn’t deny the nice feeling of using it. Familiarity, closeness. Is that what it felt to make friends with other people?

Aside from Barbara, Hannah couldn’t say she had any really close friendships. Not even with Diana, who kept everyone in her life a certain distance away from her real self. She had long ago stopped expecting to build more real relationships, her nose deep as it was into the realm of aristocracy and superficial debauchery.

Why would this idiot be the one to reel her in, of all people? Hannah felt a certain turmoil at the departure from her usual self this girl was causing. Would she let it keep going? Was it worth it, just to have a means to indulge in her secret, stupid hobby?

Was she even doing this _just_ for the sake of indulging in her hobby anymore?

She didn’t know.

“Now that that’s settled, my dear Han,” grinned Akko, having bounced right back to her radiant self, “let’s get down to watching!” She immediately opened up to an anime she wanted to show the Brit, something regarding a group of girls practicing theater.

“I’ve only watched a couple episodes of this, but it looks pretty good thus far,” she started rambling as she set the quality of the episode to high definition. “The animation is great, and there’s songs, and the girls are so cute, and there’s also like these musical battles too and-”

Hannah just stared at the little word machine gun go. Something in her mind whispered ‘cute’ to her.

As they huddled together to watch the first episode roll out on the laptop sitting in Akko’s lap, she didn’t really feel inclined to disagree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my, a quick update? Is this even the same Hikari? Next one won't come as quickly as this one did, but will be fairly soon. Hope you liked this~


	3. Love in Medias Res

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana grows suspicious of how her roommate and Akko are acting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> = n o t d e a d =
> 
> This one is late, I know. Life's been tough in many ways and sometimes you gotta focus on stuff other than your hobbies, y'know?
> 
> I wonder if anyone will get the pun in this chapter's title.

A calm Monday morning, having a sip of tea between classes, descending into a crisis - not how Diana had envisioned her day when she wrote her schedule the night prior, but not very surprising either.

Disruptions of order were becoming a norm in the heiress’ life, as Luna Nova had become a stage for all sorts of chaotic and disastrous ventures since the arrival of a certain girl who had a fire in her eyes as bright as the ones she accidentally started every second day.

Diana’s heels clicked on the linoleum tiles of the academy, reverberating like the tick-tocking of a clock that counted down the seconds to irreversible doom, which might very well be the case. She was followed by Barbara, whose lungs went into overdrive as she tried to keep up with the scion.

“A case of possession, you say?”

“I’m sure of it! They’re speaking Pig Latin, and their eyes, Diana,” her voice cracked, laced with throes of terror as she placed her hands over her mouth, “it was like staring right into the ireful and soulless orbs of a ghoul, Diana!”

Exorcism wasn’t a field of magic the blonde witch had ever been able to develop pragmatically, and as she took large strides through the school’s grounds in a speed that would envy many athletes her age, Diana hoped her theoretical knowledge would suffice. After all, what Barbara described to her seemed grave.

Once at their destination, Diana threw open the doors to the classroom, wand in hand and already preparing a spell to banish otherworldly presences from the mortal realm. She was, instead, met with a sight not unfamiliar to her, just placed in a context she didn’t recognize. Barbara had been wrong, this was something far more stupid than demonic possession.

It was two nerds arguing. And seeing the two, Diana was flung back to that strange Saturday morning and the strange and hard to understand kinship of Hannah and Akko.

▼▽▽△▲

_**Two days ago... where we left off.**_

Hannah’s eyes had become half-lidded the more she unknowingly slumped both into the couch and into Akko’s shoulder in a thoroughly un-lady-like manner, her body’s tension dissipating the further she and Akko went into their binge of different animes.

She wasn’t an overly stressed person like Diana was beneath the surface, but she was still consistently tense due to her image and hadn’t taken the time to properly relax like this in far too long. And she enjoyed it, even if it came with a garnish of shame at her guilty pleasure.

It was during the tenth sequential episode that the Brit’s mind decided to do some quick math and realize they’d been down there watching anime for over three hours.

Akko, who’d been leaning against Hannah’s shoulder with her own, noticed the girl’s muscles turning into tight knots. “Han? You alright?” She immediately paused the stream, checking in on the terrified weeb.

“The entire morning.”

“Wha?”

A pair of hands gripped themselves onto Akko’s shoulders, allowing the brunette only half second to see Hannah’s face, pale as a ghost, before her eyeballs started rolling around her sockets by the Brit’s vigorous shaking.

“I’ve been gone for an entire morning! Barbara and Diana will definitely have noticed by now!” She stood on the couch and started jumping up and down, trying desperately to reach the shaft on the ceiling through which they fell earlier.

“Hey, chill!” Akko’s hand curled around one of Hannah’s arms, trying to calm her down. “Who knows, maybe they’re still asleep!”

Hannah stopped her impromptu exercise routine to gaze at the brunette with eyes with derision. “Diana. Sleeping in.”

“...yeah, I see your point,” the Japanese conceded as she set her laptop to turn off, feeling kinda sad that their little matinee had been cut short.

She hadn’t cared to look at the time, so invested that she was in this pleasant outing with her new friend. It had been so fun! Lotte and Sucy were amazing friends, but Akko’s otaku hobbies weren’t their cup of hobby. Now she had someone to share it all with, and she wouldn’t mind losing an afternoon to it as well. If only Hannah wasn’t so closeted.

“Of course you do, I’m the voice of reason here. Now hurry up and give me a lift. If I get out of here fast enough, maybe I can think up an excuse. Would they believe in a minotaur stampede…?”

Akko grumbled, pouting her lips. Without a warning, she dragged a protesting Hannah by the arm back to the couch. “Did you really think there wasn’t an exit route to this room, you dork?”

Hannah glimpsed around the cubicle, failing to find any doors or stairs that could lead them outside the Japanese’s secret abode. “I don’t see any, though I suppose that, despite it being a room meant for you, that nerd pipsqueak was the one who designed it, and not you.”

“Hey, what’s that meant to imply?”

Hannah smirked mischievously, forgetting her panic in favor of a little teasing. “You look like the kind of person who would build a house around themselves without an entrance or exit as long as they had a stash of potato chips to last them a lifetime.”

“Hey! If I did do that, which I totally wouldn’t because I am smart and can also think ahead like you snobby types, I’d just create an exit! Like, you know,” she held a fist out mimicking a wand-hold, pointing towards a wall and doing a couple of circles in the air with a ‘whoosh’ and a ‘fwah’ as though conjuring a spell, before fake recoil pushed her backwards and into the couch, a loud ‘boom, kaboosh!’ noise whistling through her pursed lips.

“Blammo, new exit.”

“And a cave-in,” came the retort, although Hannah was smiling as she spoke. “So, where’s this exit? Do one of those bookshelves rotate when you pull out volume one of _One Piece_?”

“Hey, I’m not that basic!” Akko stuck her tongue out. “Now hold on tight, Conz didn’t install any seat belts on this baby.” She leaned over Hannah’s lap and then the armrest closest to her, hand reaching close to the floor on that side as she looked for something.

The Brit resisted the urge to push Akko - who was too close for comfort - to the floor. “H-hey, what’s the big idea?!”

There was a click sound, and Akko went back to her cushion seat, not even noticing the blush spreading on Hannah’s cheeks. “Ikou ze!”

Hannah’s little bi heart, torn between fear of being found out by her teammates and embarrassment from the dimwit’s lack of appreciation for the invisible half-meter perimeter she’d set up around her body, was not ready for a sudden lift-off. The couch shot up as though a comically oversized spring had sprung up below the piece of furniture, and once again, the Brit found herself testing the resistance of her vocal chords as a high-pitched shriek wormed its way out through her throat.

Just before they could be smashed against the underside of Akko’s bed, the frame holding the mattress automatically turned ninety degrees and rested itself against the wall, just in time for the couch to stop its ascent. The two girls shot out from the secret shaft, hitting the underside of Lotte’s bunk, currently vacant, instead.

“I always forget about that part,” mumbled a dizzy Akko, tending to her wounded thick skull. That’d probably leave a mark but, oh well, what’s another crack in the noggin’ for someone who held a legendary collection of those?

Unfortunately, Hannah did not share the same physical resistance. The auburn-haired girl was sprawled on Akko’s bed, her head leaning over the bedpost, eyes spinning like in a cartoon as she mumbled incoherently.

Akko poked her cheek, grimacing. “Earth to Han? You okay there, buddy?” No response. Her head started shooting to all sides in a panic. “Ah, what do I do, what do I do?!”

“Do I even ask what’s going on _this_ time?” drawled a monotone voice.

“Sucy!” Akko shot from her bed like she was the Road Runner, fingers digging pleadingly into the fabric of the nightgown of the Filipino, whose body was currently stretched in a complex pilates pose and whose single iris showed close to no emotion to the bizarre scene that unraveled. “Do you think I killed Hannah?!”

The mauve-haired girl rolled her neck, cracking her joints as she analyzed the drooling aristocrat from where she stood.

“Nico nico niiii~” finally came Hannah’s garbled voice.

“Not yet, Akko. A shame, I would love to see what a body with a black hole for a heart looks like from the inside,” the Filipino cackled maliciously.

Akko instantly skidded back and held a defensive stance in front of the semi-conscious mess. “Hey, no slashing up my friends, Sucy!”

“Friends? Now, that’s new.” Slowly the alchemist undid the tangles of her limbs, leaving even the flexible cartoon hurricane that was Akko to wonder how that was humanly possible. “You are aware she bullied us for a whole year, aren’t you?” Though neither her voice or face showed it, Akko could tell there was genuine concern when she spoke.

“Well, yeah, that was pretty mean.” Akko turned around to gaze at the dazed Brit, biting her lip. “But I believe everyone deserves second chances. You didn’t exactly make the best first impression yourself, Sucy, and we still became friends in the end!”

“We’re friends?”

“Sucyyy!” the brunette whined to her roommate, the alchemist’s teeth flashing teasingly. After grumbling to herself, Akko grasped her new friend’s hand, trying to get her to stand up to no avail. “Sucy, please help me! I need to help Hannah go back to her room before Diana finds out she’s a total nerd!” Gasping, Akko covered her mouth with a hand. “Oh no. I spilled the beans! Stupid mouth and stupid brain! At least that was just you and not Lotte as well...” Akko squinted at the empty upper bunk. “Where is she, anyway?”

“Window shopping in town with her little girlfriend. I suppose I won’t get an answer as to why you and Nameless Bodyguard No. 2 shot up from under your bed, will I.” Lazily, the alchemist rose to her feet, slouching as she made her way to the duo, kneeling to inspect the growing bump on Hannah’s pristine and moisturized forehead.

“Baaarb, stop stealing my muffins~”

Sucy nodded. “She’s out for the count for now. You’ll have to wait for her to wake up from her daze.”

“Or...” the Japanese spoke in a rising voice, considering herself clearly full of genius ideas as she placed an arm under Hannah’s left, hoisting her up with less strain than most people would have, “I can just carry her back to her room and make it look like she’s conscious! No one will notice a thing.”

“...Sure.” Sucy was anything but Akko’s voice of reason, that was Lotte’s job. While she wouldn’t refuse applying her medical knowledge to the situation if asked, she also wasn’t going to pass on the chance of seeing the Japanese making a fool of herself. Hannah being there was bonus points.

Once that line of thought ended, Sucy saw the brunette was already by the door, dragging a limp and blabbering Hannah with her. “Catch you later, Susu~!”

“Mooom, I don’t wanna play solfèges on your dumb piano anymore! l wanna be a rockstar~”

And with that profound philosophical remark, they left. Sucy sighed.

“Here I thought the scab curse would be enough to deflect her from that nickname.” Fool that she was, for hell hath no hard-headedness like an Akko determined.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Come on, Han, it’s nothing but a sequel hook. The original anime had a perfectly good ending and Homura was happy and _Rebellion_ just kicked it all out the window!”

“But it was an ending that made no sense! Homura spent something around eighty years inside the time loop, _of course_ she wouldn’t accept Madoka just up and becoming Space Jesus!”

“B-but, that’s what manga spin-offs are for! Why do you think _The Different Story_ or all the other mangas weren’t made into animes?!”

Diana set her tome down, as well as the chalk she’d brought for drawing a demon banishing circle. Akko and Hannah had their hands planted on the desk they were sitting at, fiercely staring each other down in their nerdy duel. She walked over to the bickering duo, who had failed to notice her or any of their other friends from the red and green teams who were watching the scene with varied reactions, attempts to intervene long ignored. The two seemed impervious to outside words, consumed as they were in their passionate arguing.

“No matter how many times I go over it, that movie is nothing but soulless retcon trash!”

Hannah, whose rationale was dwindling the longer the argument escalated and the more her personal emotions kicked, seemed to recoil at a perceived insult. “Are you saying my taste is trash?!”

The brunette, aghast, threw her hands up, almost choking on air as she looked in disbelief. “What?! That’s _so_ not what I said!”

“Sure sounded like it! As if you’re any better with your little trope-filled shounen junk.”

“Hey, shounens can be pretty good too, you... jerk!”

They would have continued were it not for Diana setting her hands down on the desk, not exactly slamming the wooden surface, but doing so with enough force to jostle a reaction from the two girls. Their reaction, like two siblings caught fighting by their mother, was augmented by the cold glare Diana shot first at Akko, boring icicles down the crimson of her eyes and making the girl squeak out an ‘eep!’, before slowly turning to inflect the same stare on Hannah, who looked down dejectedly.

“Ladies. I know not why you are arguing, but I believe this is not the way to go about settling it.” She leaned up from where she’d hunched, crossing her arms, eyes softening but keeping a certain steeliness behind them. “Now, girls, apologize,” she spoke, sounding like a mother.

Hannah still had her brow furrowed, but when her eyes dared dart from the table to the girl opposite her, the confusing hail of negative feelings she’d accumulated during the impromptu argument thawed.

“Well... I guess I shouldn’t have taken that as a personal offense or anything. You can have your opinions on stuff and it’s not my business.”

Akko was also coming down from her reverie of anger, hands now twitching to jump across the table to hug the girl and make amends to their friendship - new, fledgling, but still precious. “Me neither. And I definitely shouldn’t have called you names. Sorry, Han, guess _I’m_ the only jerk here.”

“Pshaw. It’s whatever, Koi, we both know I’ve said worse things, right?” Hannah flashed a smug and confident grin to Akko, one she didn’t fully feel herself but still delivered. Akko cocked her head from side to side, with a ‘yeeeah, kinda’ intention to it, followed by one of her bubbly giggles.

“Besides,” the Brit continued, “we can both agree that Homura is the best girl.”

Diana, who’d gone silent when the girls started patching up - with less intervention than she thought would be needed, given their troubled history - felt a weird sensation flush down her chest when the bickering duo turned to her, two interested pairs of irises scanning her sharp eyes, her tall and lean figure, as well as her long and lustrous hair. “Especially with the glasses.” They nodded to each other in some sort of silent agreement she, frustratingly, couldn’t decipher.

Once that was settled, the girls parted ways to be with their own teams, sharing farewells a tad sweeter than the scion could remember in their past. Coupled with past days’ events, this made Diana feel an inkling of curiosity - not just consideration, but true curiosity, a feeling usually only reserved in her life for completely new fields of study she didn’t yet understand.

It’s not that arguments between Akko and Hannah were uncommon, much the opposite. But this one had been different. Not only the unrecognizable topic of discussion, but that the attrition between them felt like it had a layer of something else. Perhaps it was a more passionate amicability? Well, if so, that was positive. And whatever the case, it was not Diana’s place to pry.

“What were you two even arguing about? It’s like you two were in another world!"

Hannah responded with a level voice, but neither of her classmates missed how she clumsily messed the timing of one of her steps while thinking up an excuse. “We just happened to have read this same book and ended up arguing about the sequel.”

The panda-eyed girl by her side tutted. “What book was that, though?”

“W-would you look at that,” Hannah stumbled over her words as she looked at a watch that definitely didn’t exist on her wrist, “we’re late for our next class, so step it up, ladies!” With a nervous laugh, Hannah sprinted ahead of them, winning the race against Barbara’s protest.

Diana shouldn’t pry, she really shouldn’t. But today hadn’t even been the moment when the bug of curiosity first stung her. It all returned to that curious incident on Saturday morning.

○@○○○

“Maple syrup is sooo nice, but have you tried peanut butter?! Nyaa~“

Akko laughed nervously, more a gargle of rocks than her usual spiel of sincere chuckles. Between her nervousness and the toll of having to carry Hannah through the school’s corridors, even the queen of antics could only muster so much fake confidence.

Once they’d passed Avery, the Canadian squinting suspiciously at the unusual pair but not questioning further, a blushing Akko finally allowed herself to rest against a wall that turned left into another hallway, giving them respite from prying eyes. She was pleasantly surprised that the cartoon tactic of holding the Brit’s arm from behind and making it wave to other people like a marionette had worked.

Well, if anyone were going to make a stupid trope work out it’d be her. Fitting that it’d also be on the day she got an anime watching buddy.

This _amazingly scented_ anime watching buddy who was probably privy to some really nice shampoo. Akko’s nose had been involuntarily blasted by the aristocrat’s perfume, and she couldn’t complain about it. Carrying the girl, however, wasn’t a bed of roses - or rather, patchouli, Hannah’s favorite -, and Akko did have a few gripes.

The Japanese huffed loudly, struggling to pull enough air into her lungs. “Geeze, Han, don’t you think you could stand to cut some sweets out of your diet?!”

The auburn-haired girl, of course, had an appropriate and eloquent response by means of blaring out in song, somehow managing to stay in-key as she bopped her head sideways to the beat.

“Gomen ne sunao ja nakute, yume no naka nara ieru~ ♫ ”

It was some of the most horribly pronounced Japanese the eastern witch had heard in her life. Yet, the muscles on the sides of her lips tugged upwards just slightly when she heard Hannah singing the anime opening.

“H-hmpf, well,” Akko spoke, furrowed brow turning away from Hannah in the world’s most one-sided tsundere moment, “at least we’re pretty close to your room now, so it’s no problem. I’m pretty strong after all!” She flashed a thumbs-up to the girl, who’d by now moved to mumbling about frilly dresses.

It didn’t take more than a couple of minutes before they were standing in front of the blue team’s door, a smell of hibiscus tea mixed with mahogany wafting through the cracks. It smelled decidedly of aristocracy - or as she was more used to calling it, of rich Nitro kids -, similar to the scents in the memories Akko had of her evening at the Hanbridge manor.

‘ _Oh yeah, Hannah had her hair down then, hadn’t she?_ ’

Hand absentmindedly knocking at the door, Akko let her eyes rest on Hannah’s hair. Though a bit tussled up, it remained almost perfectly coiffed inside her cute lace headband. The brunette’s finger moved to poke a few times at the little strand of hair that stood rebelliously loose on her left temple, breaking what would be an otherwise perfectly symmetrical hairstyle.

“You know, you’d look nice if you let your hair down more often…”

“I do agree that everyone does need to let their hair down and relax every now and then, and Hannah is no exception. However, I must still ask what you two are doing.”

Akko froze, solid as a statue, realizing her compromising position, hugging Hannah close by her shoulder and face at a non-polite distance from the aristocrat’s she poked at her hair. She wasn’t sure how long she stayed frozen in place, but once that passed, she yelped, both arms flying out as she somehow started tripping on her own feet, mind racing to straighten itself out and find a explanation to this situation that wasn’t, well, really gay (pun probably intended).

Hannah, meanwhile, slid down the door frame like a sack of potatoes and fell with a dry plop to the floor, and Akko started panicking about _that_ instead, dropping to her knees and inspecting the girl through the ages old medical method of frantic concerned poking.

Sparkling blue eyes had but a couple seconds to stare at the scene in front of them before they closed as Diana pinched the bridge of her nose. “What have you done to my roommate, Akko?”

Akko forgot her panic over the sight of the gay puddle on the floor for a moment, squinting at the blonde. “Why do you just assume I have anything to do with it like that?”

The brunette couldn’t protest against the sheer eloquent power of Diana’s perfectly raised eyebrow that followed, translating all the memories of Akko’s past antics into a wordless ‘are you sure I need to tell you?’

“Hmpf. W-well, it wasn’t really me though! I just, uh…” She scratched her head, biting her inner cheek. Of course she hadn’t thought of what she’d say to Hannah’s roommates when she brought her to the dorm. Leave it to Akko Kagari to not think a plan through.

“She was, let’s see, carrying a bunch of stuff from the mail place! And then she, uh…” The brunette’s eyes rolled slowly upwards. “Then everything fell on her head and it made her go cuckoo!” Akko flashed a victorious toothy grin that screamed of self-pride. ”Nailed it.”

“Why did you speak that as if you were making it up as you went?”

“L-like you’re one to talk, making weird stuff up all the time! How the heck would flowers speak to each other?”

After a couple seconds processing what she meant, Diana had to resist the temptation of planting her face on her palm, a motion far too boorish for her. “That’s absolutely not what I meant when I talked about ‘flower language’, Akko. However, if you must know, plants can converse through their roots utilizing the optic fiber principle as applied to sensorial-”

“Bla bla bla,” Akko huffed as she hoisted Hannah up. “Save the nerd talk for later and help me get Hannah to her bed!”

The scion allowed herself the slightest roll of her eyes once Akko walked past, a gesture she’d rather not let anyone see from her. She flicked her wand, casting two spells - one to make her blubbering roommate lighter, and one to pull back the sheets on her bed. Akko sat Hannah down on the mattress, having a bit of trouble undoing the tight hold the auburn-haired girl had on her waist.

“Alright! So, uh,” Akko began to turn, very much excited to head out the door and put an end this embarrassing situation. She could make it up to Hannah later when her screws were all in place. However, she was interrupted by a pair of hands - still very soft - hoisting her by the cheeks and pulling her close.

“Your eyes are sooo pretty, Koi~” Hannah giggled, making a wildfire start in Akko’s cheeks. Slowly and tenderly, she grasped the girl’s wrists, pulling her hands back to her lap with a frozen smile plastered on her burning face.

Then Akko bolted out of the room just as its last resident was coming in from her trip to town. So fast was she gone that it felt like Diana had just watched a frame skip.

“W-what? What just happened?” blinked Barbara, looking to her sides with frazzled eyes that hadn’t been quick enough to catch the blur that had whizzed past her. “Oh, Hannah!” The dark-haired witch ran over to her roommate, concern written all over her features. “Where have you been?! It’s past noon!” 

Hannah had been giggling since Akko left, hiccuping on her own laughter. “I was just carpe diem’ing, Barbie giiiirl~!” Hannah’s large grin slowly fell down as a yawn bubbled of her throat, all the used-up energy she hadn’t planned to spend catching up with her body.

“O-okay?” Barbara wanted an actual explanation, but she wasn’t going to get it from Hannah.

She snuggled into her covers and hugged a large pillow, mumbling lyrics from the same song she’d been singing before. “Shikou kairo wa shooto sunzen, ima sugu aitai yo~…”

And with that, Hannah fell asleep, leaving her roommates dumbstruck. “Diana, what just happened? That was like, totally _not_ my Hannah.”

“From what I could gather from Akko, who found her and brought her here, it seems she’s out of sorts and thus acting different than her usual self due to a concussion or something similar. Whatever it is, she should be fine after a rest.”

“Well, I hope so…” Barbara stared at her redhead friend forlornly.

The Diana from that early Saturday afternoon felt a spark of curiosity looking at the pile of books and other materials from the post office that had been lying at the end of Hannah’s bed since Diana woke up, proof that Akko was probably lying.

∙○⦾○∙

Present-time Diana felt the spark of curiosity catch fire on the logs of her mind, bursting into a flame of intrigue, as she realized something.

_“Your eyes are sooo pretty, Koi~”_

_“Pshaw. It’s whatever, Koi, we both know I’ve said worse things, right?”_

It hadn’t just been a strange side effect from the concussion. Though they might have come to more amicable terms, Hannah and Akko were simply not friends. At least certainly not enough for the reserved and cynical Hannah England the heiress knew to give a girl so immature and distanced from her own world a _nickname_.

Something was afoot. Diana, against her common sense, decided she would get to the bottom of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer - my best girl is mami
> 
> I wonder if those song lyrics mean anything~ uwu


	4. It All Comes Tumbling Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah is afraid of the cracks showing in her image and doesn't know how to deal with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~the tone shift chapter~
> 
> A reasonably quick update to my fic? Is the world ending? I don't know, but if it is, then i hope you can enjoy your last living moments reading this.
> 
> Title is from End of Evangelion's Komm Süsser Tod.

Akko groaned. Keeping her balance was hard, even after she took her seat. Doubly so while trying to ignore the several curious stares following her head as she and the rest of her team filed into their seats. Her head wobbled slowly around the axis of her neck, like a lazy planet begrudgingly following its orbit.

After the missile crisis, slowly but surely, the school’s most iconic teams had been drawn together, including in the classroom. The red and green teams had been the first to find a way to sit on adjacent desks, where they’d exchange random talk, joke or tease each other, all the while enchanting paper airplanes or joining in testing Constanze’s many little gadgets (which did blow up or electrocute people on occasion, but still less than Akko, so it was all par for the course).

They’d to this while pretending to study behind voluminous books, the smell of wet dog fur that came from the leather-bound covers nullified by perfumes Sucy would brew along with her other, more dangerous potions.

Somehow, the teachers hadn’t caught on to their mischief, possibly because their grades had remained steady thanks to the influence of one other presence in this arrangement: Diana Cavendish.

Indeed, the largest surprise came when the blue team ended up joining this conjecture, thanks to Barbara and Lotte getting close enough that they wanted to sit next to each other in class. Neither Hannah or Diana were particularly ecstatic about the idea of sitting close to the most explosive troublemakers of the academy at frst, but conceded after Barbara puppy-eyed them (which was incredibly easy, given her large doe eyes).

Diana wasn’t completely bothered by the shift. In fact, she saw it as an opportunity to keep an eye on the academic progress of her now close acquaintances (‘friends’ was a word too semantically charged) - Akko and Amanda, in particular, who she thought could use a positive educational presence in their lives. And though it took many trials and tribulations and herculean self-restraint not to strangle O’Neill during her worst moments (“ooh, have I been a bad student, Ms. Cavendish~?”), her efforts proved fruitful.

Hannah, however, couldn’t help but feel like an outlier, like some sort of _ninth_ wheel in the unlikely group of friends. Even more now that Barbara, her best friend, had halved their time together in favor of the Jansson girl, with whom she could share her love for _Night Fall_. Hannah and Barbara had never had something in common they could be as passionate about, the foundations of their friendship based more on gossip and boy talk than anything else. So the auburn-haired girl had been left lonely.

That is, until that morning with that cute little idiot. It’s not like the two girls spoke much outside of their secret weeb gatherings, given how Hannah wanted to keep it a secret. But just having the goofy witch there and knowing they were friends, sharing a hobby she couldn’t partake in with anyone else until now, felt nice. It was a fuzzy and nice feeling. When had Hannah ever indulged in something she truly loved with anyone but her own self in moments of secrecy, silently watching streams in the solitude of her bedroom?

And she never wanted to lose that feeling, were she to be honest to herself. But she wasn’t fully, preferring to pass it off mentally as a ‘convenient arrangement’.

So it was that she couldn’t help but stare at Akko as she sat down along with Sucy and Lotte. Amanda tried to stifle a giggle for all of two seconds before bursting out laughing, while the others gave her weird looks.

“Akko, sweetie,” spoke Jasminka with a voice like honey, “are those antlers?”

“Oh, no, you’re _clearly_ just imagining it,” retorted the brunette sarcastically, looking down dejectedly while Lotte dodged to the side to avoid narrowly being hit on the cheek by the horns that had sprouted overnight from her roommate’s head.

“Hey, no need to be rude,” pouted Barbara from the desk above, mostly protective of Lotte, her ‘really good and nice friend who _no_ , I don’t have a crush on’ (as she’d described it _sic_ to her roommates) than acting out of actual indignation.

“Gah, soooorry…” Akko rubbed her temples to soothe a forthcoming migraine. “It’s just really tiring to balance these things on my head all the time.”

Sucy somehow had, in the span of the thirty seconds since they’d taken their seats, already produced a chemistry set to tinker with, lazily swirling a tube filled with burgundy liquid between her fingers. It looked like blood and Hannah felt squeamish. “And here I thought you’d have no problem balancing them, given that heavy thick skull you carry every day.” The alchemist made a face as an accusatory finger poked into her pale cheek.

“Hey, leave me alone! This is your fault!”

Hannah was the first one to ask. “Akko, _why_ do you have antlers?” She hoped nobody would notice that she was genuinely concerned for the dunce - it was simply not part of her image to be mushy.

The brunette pouted, grabbing the base of her antlers with her hands and pulling at them, absolutely failing at making them budge. “I called Sucy by a nickname she didn’t like and now she’s punishing me.” Her eyes narrowed into a glare towards the girl in question. “Couldn’t you have gone easier on me, Sucy Manbavaran of the House-of-no-Fun-Allowed?”

“You had been warned about calling me that before, twice-shy. I could’ve done far worse and you know it.” Akko gulped down a grape-sized lump here, she knew the truth of that more than anyone else. “Plus, it should go away in a few hours, so suck it up. Maybe let a few birds build a nest on your head.”

“Well, well, well,” Amanda poked at the thick white branches, grinning toothily. “By Jennifer’s tits, when’s the last time you got laid, Kagari?”

The girl put her hands to the desk, her upper body recoiling backwards in shock, her face on fire as she shouted back indignantly. “W-what?! What the heck does that have to do with anything, Amanda?!”

“Well, you know, since you’re pretty…” the girl’s emerald eyes rolled up as she prepared to drop the pun with a wide grin, “ _horny_ today?”

Collective groans and boo’s rung across the three desks. Constanze retrieved a tape from her uniform and pressed a button, playing a failing horn sound effect.

“I can’t believe I’m gonna have to spent the rest of the day putting up with this...” Akko planted her chin on the desk, looking the most miserable Hannah had seen her be in a while, drooping crimson eyes making her look like a kicked puppy. And Hannah, from her place at the desk above the red team’s, found that she couldn’t stand for that look on that cute happy-go-lucky mug. She didn’t catch herself before she had already leaned forwards, hand reaching out to pat Akko’s head between her antlers, carefully weaving through her knots.

“Oh, dear, it’ll be fine.”

Wait, had she just _headpatted_ Akko?

The Brit didn’t notice the weird looks she got. She was more focused on the emotional well being of the girl sitting below, whose misery alleviated from the contact almost immediately. Akko’s small feline-like purr and slight blush abruptly morphed to a pair of large surprised eyes and a small gasp of wonder. Hannah was dumbfounded at the change, giving the Japanese girl a frown. “W-what? What’s with the googly eyes now?”

“Did you just make a pun?”

“What?”

Akko’s eyes squinted, pushed upwards by the sides of the lively smile growing on her lips. “You totally did! ‘Oh, deer’, just now!” She giggled to herself victoriously, believing that her sense of comedy was rubbing on the stuck-up British girl.

“W- uh- I would never!” Hannah pushed her hands outwards as if defending herself, finally remembering that there were more people around them.

“Well, you just did, even if accidentally,” remarked Sucy.

From besides her, Lotte nodded sagely. “A pun not intended is still a pun.” Constanze held up a sign on which was scrawled ‘A pun is a pun. You can’t say it’s only accidental’.

“Now that’s a surprise. I didn’t expect to see any of you from the snobby bunch join us down here in the realm of updogg. Welcome to your new life, England,” quipped Amanda with finality, delighting in how the hazel-eyed girl tried and failed to disappear into her seat by sitting back harder against it.

“I abhor the notion!” Hannah more squeaked than spoke her verbiage. “Puns are too much of a lowly form of comedy for someone as versed as I am!”

Akko hid her grin behind a sleeve, too caught up in the moment to put her filters on. “Oh yeah, your tastes for comedy are super refined, right, Ms. Nyaruko?”

Hannah’s own filters took a day off. “N-now, I’ll have you know that there’s a simple grace to be enjoyed in the romantic comedy tropes these shows employ! Especially with Nyaruko and the clever Lovecraftian undertones that lay below its apparently superficial narrative, and-”

“Ms. what now?” asked Jasminka, her voice innocent and sweet like honey.

Both girls went stiff, resisting the urge to facepalm after realizing they had, yet again, slipped up. Instead, they turned away from each other in embarrassment - not that it helped much, as that only led them to fall prey to the curious stares of their roommates and friends.

“Since when do _you two_ interact, anyway?” Amanda butted in, holding zero qualms about how squirmish the two looked.

“What’s with all the headpatting too?” read Constanze’s blackboard.

Hannah sunk into her chair, while Akko started blabbering in hopes of finding a brilliant excuse when none existed. Thankfully, luck struck when Finnelan’s angry voice rose from the bottom of the amphitheater, the first and only time Akko would be glad to hear it.

“Silence in my classroom! You will pay attention unless you wish to add yet _another_ detention to your queue, Ms. Kagari and company!” Giggles rose among the other students. “Frankly, it saddens me that you cannot be more like Diana, whose focus never falters. You stand to learn from her.” Reluctantly, Amanda quieted her interrogation, but the suspicious squints she threw Akko and Hannah’s way from time to time forced the two girls to be on their toes for the rest of the class.

All the while, Diana said not a word as she diligently paid attention to class, hoping that no one caught her occasionally flipping to the last page of her notebook to write down notes for her ongoing investigation.

  * __Nicknames: Han. Koi: reduction of Akko, perhaps? A word with an ulterior meaning? Calls for further etymological research__


  * _Hannah uncharacteristically initiates physical contact. Not rejected_


  * _Unknown topics of discussion, brought up for a second time with no conclusion. Homura? Neearucco? What do these things mean?_



○→⦾→@

Akko didn’t expect that inviting Hannah to watch anime with her one morning would result in consistent handholding. She didn’t mind it.

...Even if it right now she was just being dragged along like a ragdoll by Hannah. The girl with the hazel eyes had waited until the end of classes to sneak the brunette from under their friend’s noses so they could have a moment of privacy.

“Sooo,” Akko spoke with voice light as a weather, following the Brit whose eyes were really interested in the paralelepipedal slabs of ancient stone they trekked on. “Where are we going? Is it the cafeteria? I am pretty hungry but I don’t really see why we couldn’t have gone with everyone, or did you want to pick something up on your room before that? Is it a book? Or maybe sweets for dessert? I didn’t think you were a sweets kind of girl but I guess you _are_ pretty sweet, well, more like sweet on the inside and hard on the outside like a jawbr-”

A finger shoved itself into Akko’s lips. Hannah had stopped in her tracks, blushing furiously. “You are really bad at not rambling, aren’t you?”

Akko smiled like an absolute goof, that mesmerizing smile that Hannah couldn’t help but be drawn into like a moth to a lamp. “Yep, sure am! _Haha_ used to say three or four different of our ancestors came back at once as me. _Chichi_ thought I was a lightning demigod that ended up as a human!”

“And _I_ think that your lack of a filter, wherever it comes from, is contagious.” Hannah’s gaze sought the area for anyone who might be watching them before she dragged Akko inside a broom closet for the cleaning staff’s use. It wasn’t minuscule, but it did push them together close enough that both girls felt a little awkward about the small skinships from their arms or legs bumping.

‘Blast whoever thought skirts would make for a great uniform and didn’t predict Akko Kagari and her not caring about showing too much skin,’ thought Hannah as her thigh bumped again with Akko’s absolute territory.

“Sooo… why are we here?”

Hannah took a deep breath, trying to find the script she’d written in her head. “Okay, look, I- you see, I like our friendship, Akko, but-” the auburn-haired girl’s wrists did circles as she fumbled with her words, too anxious to use the nickname she’d given Akko. She breathed in again and let it out, failing to stop her foot from tapping nervously against the floor. “That was, like, the second time we ended up ranting in class about something nerdy, right?”

The Japanese nodded, having the rare conscience to let Hannah go on, as the girl’s tone seemed serious.

“And our friends are starting to get suspicious because of that. The reason I got you to come here is because I wanted to ask you to... I just... I want to keep it down, alright? Not act all… friendly or whatever. You get it, right?”

Hannah was expecting Akko to be fine with this proposal. After all, few people had as much empathy and open-mindedness as her.

But when she finally looked up from where her eyes had been resting on the floor, she felt her heart tight. Akko wasn’t irate by any stretch, but her brow had furrowed, her eyes dimmed from their usual shine and her soft lips had pursed just so that Hannah could tell the brunette was very unhappy.

Hannah felt something inside her break at the thought she’d caused that frown.

“Well, no, I don’t,” Akko begun with a low voice, tugging at the sleeve of her shirt for comfort. “We had fun and you said we could be friends. I don’t get why you don’t wanna be my friend anymore now.”

“N-no, that’s absolutely not it! I want to be your friend! Just… not… in public?” Hannah winced, as even she realized how bad that sounded.

Akko crossed her arms, voice rising as she took Hannah’s words badly. “Oh, I’m too embarrassing to be around with, is what you’re saying?”

“No! I mean, yes, it is embarrassing, but not because of you! It’s because I don’t want people to know that I like bizarro stuff.”

This time it was the brunette who jabbed a finger against Hannah, touching the girl’s nose in indignation. “And how much different is that from not wanting to be my friend?! Those are _my_ hobbies too and it hurts that you keep calling them weird all the time! Why do you keep pretending and acting so much?!”

Hannah clenched her hands. Once again, she felt her rationale slipping the more worked up she got, and she butted her forehead against the Japanese girl’s brow. “The people in my life would find me weird if they knew! I’m not like you, Akko! You are totally free to go around and parade what you like as much as you want, regardless of whether people find it strange or not! And you certainly capitalize on that freedom. Am I wrong, Shiny Chariot fan number one?”

“Do you think it’s all nice for me too? That everyone has anime posters on their walls in every home back in my country? Otakus are also ostra… ostrich…” Akko squeaked in frustration. “People like me are also seen as weird!”

“But you aren't part of witch aristocracy! I don’t want to be ridiculed for liking something I’m not supposed to or seen hanging out with people who are not of my standing! People _expect_ things from me!”

Akko was on the verge of tears, each word from the other girl like a little needle of insecurity piercing her heart. “Yeah. You’re right, no one’s ever really expected anything from me, huh? Not the teachers, not my friends, not the other girls here at Luna Nova.” Her voice broke, mixed with ugly sobs. “At least _you_ can live life as a witch and go to school and no one laughs at you. You can go on every day without having to think about all the people who said or those who still say that you’ll never be able to follow your biggest dream of being a witch just because you weren’t born to a witch family. And that you should just give up because you’re worthless.”

The argument fell into a deep, harsh silence, like an out of control train crashing against an unyielding stone wall. Both knew well enough that Hannah had been part of the unwelcome entourage of bigotry following Akko for the better part of a year.

The silence went on, like a wordless stand-off. The broom closet, if it felt cramped before, was now absolutely suffocating. Both girls wanted to at the same time be as close and as far apart from each other as possible, a slurry of betrayal, guilt and so many other ugly sentiments stuck in their throats and clogging their thoughts.

Akko was the one to break the silence, as best as she could, shuffling her feet. “I… I’m gonna go meet up with everyone for lunch. I think. You can come with me if you want.”

The Brit’s back slid against the wall of the closet, and she sat on the cold floor, staring away from Akko. “No. You go on and do that. I’ll just… stay here in the closet.”

“Well… okay, then. I hope it’s fun in there.”

Akko awkwardly shoved her hands into the pockets of her vest and walked away, kicking at the dust on the floor and letting tears stream down the sides of her cheeks, not knowing whether to curse herself for not being more understanding or for trusting Hannah in the first place. She didn’t know which direction she wanted her heart to go about the aristocrat and it was really annoying to not know her own feelings when they were usually so clear and cut.

It reminded her of that cold winter night in Blytonbury, and that was her worst memory ever.

Hannah slouched and stuffed her face in her hands, a scream bubbling in her throat and tears prickling at the corners of her eyes, both begging for but neither being given the freedom of release, her catharsis denied as she shoved her feelings down, down, down like a mess being shoved inside a wardrobe. The same old routine with everything that didn’t fit her image as heir to a small noble house.

Finally, having had enough of the musty lonely cabinet, she rudely shoved a fist across her face to wipe the little dots of water on her eyes away. With unsteady feet, she forced herself out of the cramped spot and back to her room, where she could wallow peacefully alone inside her blanket. Because after this argument, after how she’d hurt Akko, she was sure the blanket would go back to being the only thing close to comfort she had in her life.

Both didn’t notice a girl with platinum blonde hair, cloaked by an invisibility spell, hidden around the corner that led into another hallway, watching the scene in disbelief and concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh whoops i dropped a bottle of angst on my light hearted comedy fic c':  
> was hannah staying inside the closet too on the nose?
> 
> I've gone back to the other chapters and changed the linebreaks as a reference to a certain anime's scene transitions. Wonder if anyone'll catch it~?


	5. The Distressed Heart of England!! Diana is Motherly?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah has a heart to heart with Diana.

Hannah threw herself on the couch as soon as she opened the door to her dorm, grabbing the largest pillow she could find and burying her face in it, the few prickling tears she couldn’t hold back forming puddles on the fabric. She wished so desperately for human warmth right now, to be held by actual arms and maybe then be able to let it all out. But she wouldn’t be allowed such a commodity.

At least, with everyone else having lunch, she was alone and free to wallow in her own self-pity without prying eyes to see how pathetic she looked.

“Hannah? Is that you?”

Scratch that.

The voice came from behind the partition that divided the rooms. The auburn-haired girl gasped, throwing her pillow away and sitting upright, then jolting to her feet. She bolted forwards, reaching out for the desk so she could pretend to be studying. But instead, she tripped on her own feet and tumbled, landing in a heap on the floor just as the owner of the dulcet voice appeared from behind the bookshelf dividing the room in half. Another sob got caught in Hannah’s throat, as she realized how fragile and vulnerable she looked.

Wordlessly, Diana knelt and held her hand out to Hannah, who was untangling an arm from a leg. She took it, and the heiress hoisted her roommate up, presenting a smile free of judgment to her. Hannah found it hard to meet her eyes, pretending to fix her uniform as an excuse to not look directly at her aide.

“I’ve brewed some tea,” begun the Cavendish, as though she hadn’t ever seen Hannah’s distress. “You’re welcome to have some.” And with that, she returned to her study, expecting the other witch to follow her. Hannah did.

Hannah wasn’t as much a fan of tea as either of her roommates, but she’d indulge. It’s not like she could refuse and go back to her wallowing now. She placed her hand on the end of the polished bookcase, walking through the divide. Diana’s back was turned to her as she poured tea for them, setting the teapot at a perfect angle to avoid spilling any liquid on her desk. As usual, Diana was absolutely flawless.

Or that’s what Hannah thought. The heiress was glad that her roommate didn’t notice either the pearls of sweat shining on her forehead or the crevasses in her torax from her deep intakes of air. Though she hadn’t run - a break of conduct that she didn’t wish to repeat after the ‘exorcism’ incident -, she’d still power-walked to their dormitory so she’d arrive before the England.

“Why aren’t you having lunch with the others?” Hannah asked, standing awkwardly in a spot, not knowing where to sit.

“Why, I could ask you the same thing,” Diana retorted, raising a cup of tea to her lips after sitting down on the edge of her bed, legs crossing. Hannah took it as a sign to sit on the study, upon which a saucer with a cup of warm liquid on top had been placed. “I simply... had some studying to catch up on before our afternoon classes.”

Hannah drank from her cup. The brew wasn’t exactly to her tastes, what with the strong citrus aftertaste and the absolute lack of sugar - an example of Diana’s purist, condiment-free tea philosophy. But the warm liquid pouring down her throat still did something to soothe her stiff muscles and calm her mind down.

“Catching up? That doesn’t sound like you,” and truly it didn’t, given how thorough Diana’s schedule was, drafted so that she’d have her work ready weeks or even months in advance. Not to mention available for second, third or fourth drafts so they’d be impeccable by the time their deadlines arrived.

“O-oh,” Diana’s hand faltered nervously for a second, nearly spilling a few drops of tea on her skirt. “I... suppose it might be that helping Amanda and Akko with their academic caveats took more of my attention than I’d initially expected, and I fell back on my schedule.”

The mention of Akko’s name made Hannah’s eyes avert down to the floor. “I see,” she nodded, taking a sip of tea and closing her eyes. It was easier to hide her angst regarding the brunette if she didn’t look at the other girl in the room.

“What about you? I expected you to accompany Barbara to lunch. It’s certainly a rarity to find you two peas of a pod apart from each other.”

“I’m just not feeling too well,” Hannah replied, setting aside her tea. Her stomach was starting to churn, both due to how sick she felt emotionally and the strong herbal taste. “So I thought I’d come here, rest, lay low for a bit.”

“Oh, and why is that, dear?” Diana knew exactly the reason why, but it’d do no good to confront Hannah directly about it. She didn’t want to make her defensive. There was also the fact that stalking the pair had been somewhat morally grey.

Hannah didn’t know how to respond. Maybe she could lie and say that the school’s dubious breakfast menu hadn’t agreed with her stomach. But when she risked a look at Diana, who had genuine concern for her roommate’s gripes in those sapphire irises, she settled for a half-truth.

“Just… friendship problems, I guess.” Since she didn’t have the cup in her grasp anymore, she settled for fidgeting with her fingers to vent her physical anxiety, intertwining them. It made her miss holding Akko’s hand.

“Oh? Has something come between you and Barbara, and that is why you’re not with her? As your roommate, I would be glad to help if that’s the case.”

“No, no, this isn’t about Barbara…”

And there was her opportunity to strike. Innocently as she could, Diana prodded. “Really, now. I’m relieved that nothing has come between you, as I love both very much.” Her eyes looked up, as she pretended to ponder on the possibilities. “Avery, perhaps? Hmm, but that doesn’t seem right. Or perhaps Blair…”

The auburn-haired witch grit her teeth, her frustration at herself growing. She took the cup of tea in her hands a second time. “Akko.” With one large gulp, Hannah finished the rest of the liquid, coughing a bit as the strong taste assaulted her throat. “It’s problems with Akko.”

Diana, gaze unfaltering in its kindness, nodded, and gave her friend the silence and space she needed after the confession. It couldn’t have been easy for her to admit the cause of her distress.

As for the auburn-haired witch, she decided she might as well vent. She needed to get her feelings in line if she wanted to make it up to Akko, and even if that weren’t the case, a longing for understanding and care overtook her restraints. Her voice and hands trembled with nervousness. “It started about, l-like, a week ago. I was out running some... _errands_ ,” she tugged at her collar, “and then I bumped into Akko. And we found we have this same, uhm, hobby, ‘kay? And, like, we bonded over that, right? Maybe she’s a klutz, but she’s also a sweet and fun person to be around and I had no idea until we started to hang out. But… ” The more nervous she got, the more the Valley Girl in her showed. Once she received a silent nod, she continued.

“I’m not ready for people to know that I like the stuff I do, and so I wanted to hide it. And I thought that meant h-hiding that Akko and I are friends from you and everyone else. A-and she took it pretty badly,” her voice cracked. “She thought I didn’t like her as a friend.” Allowing someone to see her like this, anxious and fragile, made the Brit feel hideous and small.

“I-I made Akko feel bad. Because I was stupid and insensitive. And now I feel like absolute rubbish for it.” She looked down, hoping it would somehow masquerade the fact she was shaking, tearing up and visibly breaking down from her roommate.

Diana didn’t respond, and that lack of response drove her insecurities higher. She couldn’t look to confirm, but she was absolutely sure that the Cavendish thought of her as nothing but a monster now.

That was, until she was enveloped in a motherly embrace.

“Is this okay?” asked the blonde embracing her. Hannah could barely nod, her body at a standstill for a moment before she burst into a fit of sobs - small hiccups at first, then loud and tear filled. This is the warmth she’d been sorely missing and no amount of imposed self-restraint could keep her from bawling now.

Hannah didn’t really remember when she had last bawled her eyes out on someone else’s shoulder like this. The answer was too long.

“Shh,” cooed Diana. “I’m here for you.”

There are those who’d say Diana was a cold and emotionless person, but that was far from the truth. She wasn’t used to giving affection, but she held a deep, motherly love for the important people in her life, and that included Hannah.

It was a while before the other Brit calmed down enough to be able to speak through her now soft, occasional sobs.

“I didn’t want to hurt her, Diana. It’s kinda weird, right? H-here I was, outright bullying her until just months ago and now I’m here, actually caring.”

“It is true that you might have been less than stellar in dealing with others, particularly Akko, in the past.” She decided to keep silent about her own guilt for not stepping in when Hannah and Barbara’s actions started to become demeaning. Hannah felt a pang of guilt.

“However, you realized it and took steps to get better,” amended the prodigy, rubbing circles on the witch’s back to soothe the cauldron of negativity inside her heart. “And I’m proud of you for it. You just need to take a few more. There’s no need to be scared of what people will think of you for the things that make you happy, because, after all, they’re what keep you going. It’s no reason to hide who you are.” That was a lesson Akko had also helped the scion learn.

Hannah’s hands gripped Diana’s robe, her mind full of insecurity. “But of course there’s something to be scared of, Di. People might mock me if they know who I really am. They’re used to the Hannah I show them.” She bit down on her lower lip, drawing a bit of blood.

“Yes, they might and probably will,” was the matter-of-fact response. In reality, people could be cruel, Diana knew. “But you don’t have to be afraid of those reactions because they mean nothing. You should embrace who you are. That’s something I believe you can learn from Akko.” Holding the sobbing witch by the shoulders, Diana looked Hannah in the eye with firmness and benevolence in her voice. “And Akko, despite your troubled history together, is willing to extend her friendship in you. So have pride of who you are, and seize that.” The prodigy smiled warmly.

Even Hannah’s insecurities waned in front of the blonde’s confidence in her own words. ‘ _She’s right,_ ’ Hannah conceded. She was hurting herself every time she belittled her own tastes and identity. And she had let that lack of self-love go far enough to hurt someone she’d come to care about.

“You’re absolutely correct, Diana. And the place to start changing that is by making things right with Akko. She accepted me for who I am and I have to show her how I _really_ feel about it!” She stood up from the chair, her broken spirit mending itself with her newfound determination. She closed her fists, timidly grinning at her roommate, who gave a light clap.

“It pleases me to see that change in attitude, dear.”

“Thank you so much, Diana!” Hannah threw her arms around the other girl, who was caught by surprise, squeezing her in a hug that would have rivaled one of Akko’s. Hannah let go and, giving a final nod and beaming smile, proceeded to leave the room, her objective clear, hand pointing upwards determinedly. “I’m gonna make things right with Koi,” she spoke, not embarrassed of their nicknames anymore, “and tell everyone that I’m proud of our friendship! And from there I’ll build the courage to admit that I, Hannah England, really like anime! Thank you, Dii~! You’re the best!”

“Always, darling,” sing-songed the blonde, maintaining her soft motherly smile towards the beaming witch. Hannah closed the door, now feeling triumphant, knowing she could make things right. Or at least she hoped she still could. But letting herself wallow in doubts right now would do no good, so she instead focused her energy into dashing to the cafeteria to take action.

The door closed. Diana’s motherly smile fell, and her brows knit.

“...What is an anime?”


	6. Sucy Manbavaran Wants to Live Quietly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sucy finds herself in the undesirable position of having to advise a heartbroken Akko.

A long intake of air, like lethargic bellows. A moment of suspension. Then, a long exhale - vocalized into a sigh - like the world's saddest balloon deflating.

Rinse, repeat.

The fork in the alchemist's hand bent as her digits clenched around the tableware. Sucy's patience for Akko's antics wasn't exactly generous, but her patience for seeing the brunette sighing, slumped like a sad sack of potatoes over the cafeteria table, was even shorter. First, the dunce had arrived late to the cafeteria - a rare occurrence given the black hole that was Akko's metabolism. And when she finally did, she had the disposition of a discarded rag. The sight had the Filipina almost bursting a vein. Whether she was just annoyed at someone else's drama or whether she cared deep down and wanted to bring the girl out of her funk, she couldn't tell, but she decided she was just about done with the conjuncture.

So she grabbed a potato out of her plate and flung it at Akko's thick skull, where it ricocheted away to meet the floor with a splash.

"S-Sucy!" Lotte jumped from her seat and her hands flailed desperately. The rest of the joint teams - missing two of its blues - was equally startled by the sudden display of aggressiveness.

"Yeowch!" Akko's hand shot up to tend to her bruised scalp. "Whaddya do that for?!"

The pale-skinned witch massaged out the migraine in her forehead, relieved that the impromptu ventilator had gone back to being an yelling car horn. Even Sucy was surprised by how much a depressed Akko was draining - not just the incessant little sighs of woe, but the sight was just wrong. "Akko, for the love of mushrooms, I can't stand you being a sad Joe. It's making lunch unbearable. What is up with you?" 

Akko, satisfied that the pain in her head had gone down, crossed her arms on the table and buried her chin in them. "Don't wanna talk about it."

The Manbavaran's left eye twitched. "What do you mean, 'don't want to talk about it'?" she snarled.

Akko's head moved slightly, so she could stare in annoyance at her roommate. "It means just that. Forget it."

"Forget it..." Sucy plunged her fork into her steak like a murderer would fatally stab their victim, before she crossed over the distance between her and the brunette; she attacked Akko's right temple with the tip of her finger, poking it harshly, eliciting an "yeow-ow-owch!" from the brunette. "You don't get to poke _your_ little button nose in everyone's lives all the time to try and fix their troubles, not to mention usually making them worse and more inflammable, and then tell your..." The alchemist grit her shark teeth for a second, cursing internally at the choice of word. "Your _friends_ to 'forget it' when it's _you_ having a problem. So can that and spill the beans already, Akko."

Sucy returned to her seat from where she'd hunched over to lecture the Japanese, and saw a little smile from her gingerhead roommate as she did. "Well," Lotte was still frazzled from the Filipina's sudden burst, but less so as she spoke, "I don't quite approve of your methods," she adjusted her bifocals, head dipped and countenance pleased, "but I'm proud of you for taking caring of Akko."

"Pardon, you're mistaking me for someone else," came the monotone answer, "I simply find my meals better enjoyed in silence."

"Sure you do." Turning away from the alchemist, Lotte's hand caressed Akko's abused head, the brunette whimpering like a lost puppy under the touch. "You can rely on us too, Akko."

Amanda put her feet up on the table and her hands behind her head, leaning back and grinning. "Yeah, we got your back, Kagari." Jasminka nodded, popping a cookie into her mouth with a happy hum. Constanze scribbled furiously on her board and then turned it around: 'Friends are important. Always welcome.' The last presence on the conjoined tables, Barbara, had her mind elsewhere.

Well, it's not like Akko could ever forget friendships like these. They were there for her during the greatest trials of her life and they were still here now. Of course they wouldn't let her stay sad.

" _Min-naaaa_..." The brunette's eyes glistened with unborn tears, threatening to burst and flood the table. "You're all too nice to meee~" After another round of pats from Lotte, who giggled, the brunette inhaled and exhaled, heart a little lighter thanks to her friends' worse. However, she was still downcast. "Really, it's nothing too big. I tried to make a friend but she was too..." She mulled the words in her mouth, clicking her tongue. "Embarrassed? Of us, of me. Or too scared to admit it to others. So that got me into a big funk thinking that maybe I wasn't a good enough friend."

Sucy already had an idea of who she was talking about, given the other day's events. She had been rather skeptical of Hannah's intentions, after how much of a bully she'd been. But she had to question herself if that was enough reason to discredit the aristocrat, since after all, hadn't Sucy been the one who constantly treated Akko to some of her worst concoctions? 

"Sheesh, rude," Amanda growled, hand rolling her sleeve up. "I'm not a big fan of bullies who talk others down. Do I need to teach someone to not be a jerk?" Her right fist punched the inside of her palm, in a sickeningly loud noise that resembled the crack of a whip.

"N-no," Akko's hands immediately shot out in a halting gesture, "I really don't think she's being mean for the sake of it. Just kind of an inconsiderate jerk." So much for Hannah stepping up from her old habits, the bitter side of the brunette's mind piped in. But her gut felt bad about having that mean thought, enough that she lost her appetite. With a sigh, she rested her cheek on the wood of the table, spinning her fork around with a finger. 

An Akko without an appetite really isn't a good sign, and the green team frowned at the sight. 

The less violent ginger of the gang had turned away from the conversation, moving over to her fellow literature fan. Lotte placed a hand on Barbara's shoulder, hoping to comfort the other brooding girl on the group. "Hey, Barb," the touch and the pet name elicited Barbara's heart to speed up ever so slightly, "are you okay?"

The raven-haired witch smiled, scratching her cheek. "I'm okay. Just a bit worried," she reassured, but her face scowled slightly again, like some invisible weight on her brow made it impossible for her face to fully smile. "It's not like Hannah or Diana to not show up without saying anything to me."

An evil little guilt demon slashed Akko's heart when she caught what Barbara said. She really shouldn't have left Hannah alone inside the broom closet, but she was just so upset at how the auburn-haired girl had acted. That gigantic misunderstanding of wishes and intentions was too much of a mess, and trying to make sense out of what happened even now made Akko feel like she was flailing inside a tangled net. 

She was upset.

"I think you're justified in being upset, Akko," Jasminka finally chimed in, as though she'd been reading the brunette's thoughts. "But have you considered your friend might not be as comfortable as you with displaying affection?"

A dusting of pink formed on the brunette's cheeks. She couldn't help but linger on 'displaying affection', given how happy she'd felt when Hannah loosened up to her emotionally or physically. But what the Russian said was true, since much like Diana, the girl was naturally reserved and an introvert. It hand't really occurred to Akko how hard it must have been for Hannah to loosen up when it was just the two of them - it was probably way scarier to consider making that public knowledge.

Akko might have been an open book, an absolute outgoing person who held no fear of what others might think of her wishes or follies.

But there was one time when she felt scared and alone, like she wasn't allowed to reach out to anyone. That evening, where she sat alone under the snow, her convictions broken. Is that how Hannah always felt around others? It hadn't occurred to the brunette, especially not when she blew up on Hannah's face. Maybe _she_ was the inconsiderate jerk.

"You are totes right, Jas," Akko relented. "Well, so I did the right thing by leaving her alone, right?"

"Absolutely not," a raspy low voice muttered, but still clearly enough that Akko picked up on it. When she noticed she was being looked at, Sucy gnarled and cursed her brain for being so frustratingly 'Akko' today and pushing her into this meaningless and _sentimental_ debacle. Sucy really wasn't one for mush. But she found she couldn't hold it to herself.

"Look, you dunce. When we met on that bridge during enrollment day, I did all in my power to get you away from me, so you'd stop bothering me with your friendship nonsense." Sucy couldn't believe what she was going to admit. Maybe it was the climate, perhaps it was the sugary friendship speech they just held, a funnier than usual mushroom; whatever it was, _something_ compelled her to keep going. "Akko, you're annoying, hard-headed and a moron who won't know to give up when everyone else with a lick of common sense already has."

The girl in question crossed her arms, looking away with a frown. "Geeze, flatter me more, will ya?"

The alchemist pressed on, with an almost imperceptible drop of kindness in her tone. "It's a good thing. You kept going. Maybe not always with due respect, but you kept trying to be my friend even when I made it hard on you with my potions and teasing. And for better or for worse," Sucy gave one of her rare, small smiles, "here I am, sitting with all of you. If you hadn't done that, I might not have enrolled, let alone stopped keeping to myself. It's that petulant drive of yours that changed the entire world for the better, and you shouldn't give that up, for your _new friend_ 's sake." The alchemist's tone told Akko that she knew who her mysterious to-be friend was.

And truth be told, Akko hadn't ever seen Sucy spend nearly this much of her time on what she'd consistently call 'annoying sugary hugboxing'. It meant the world for the brunette in that moment, that the mauve-haired girl would step out of her zone of comfort to give Akko a good word of advice. She felt like bear-hugging the other girl, but just this time she settled on a sincere "thank you very much, Suce."

The alchemist didn't have anything to say for it. She'd, in one lunch, depleted her pleasantries and kind words for a lifetime or two.

A rambunctious voice piped in from the green team side of the table. "Come on, Sucy, just admit that you love being here all friendship is magic like with the gang. You ain't gonna melt~" Amanda teased with a vicious grin.

"You, however, will if you say a single more word about this," Sucy spoke coldly, presenting the fiery-headed witch with her single visible eye, hollow and with the promise of torturous agony were she to cross the line. Amanda shuddered and immediately pressed her back into her seat in silence, knowing that the alchemist wasn't bluffing. Constanze snickered, earning a glare from the American.

Akko felt her vigor grow anew, this time tempered by finally comprehending that Hannah's emotional needs were different from what she'd assumed. "Thanks for all the support, gang. Now I just have to go and make things right with-"

"Hannah!" Barbara leaped from her seat, beckoning the unusually late girl to join them. With one look, Akko could register that the girl of her thoughts had, indeed, just crossed into the cafeteria, steps slow and unsure. Her heart skipped a beat, and cold sweat formed on her brow and hands. Akko wasn't sure if she was emotionally ready to deal with their fallout this soon.

Hannah, for her part, wasn't facing the brunette or anyone as she approached the table, her stomach sinking into some cold depth with each step.

"Where have you been? Come on, I think there's still time for you to get lunch! We have steak today, and..."

"Thank you, Barbs," Hannah smiled with deep fondness for her long-time friend. "I'll get something to eat in a bit, but first I have something I need to do." Still standing by the table, Hannah willed herself to look up and face Akko. The brunette, though nervous, didn't flinch away from meeting her hazel-colored gaze. Both knew that they couldn't chicken out of resolving this situation now if they wanted to salvage their friendship.

The pair stood like that for a moment too long, tension filling the air as the onlookers, at first confused, pieced together what was going on between the two. Amanda in particular let out an "oooh", but that was it. She knew this wasn't a moment for teasing.

Hannah had thought of many ways to start this conversation and apology on her nervous walk to the cafeteria, from starting with a waterfall of apologies and platitudes, to even trying to break the ice with a pun or an one-liner. But standing here, she decided that maybe simplicity and honesty would be the best policies. "Akko," she willed out through shaky breaths, "i-if you're still willing to after the terrible things I said... after I broke your trust even when you gave it so willingly to me," her irises couldn't help but skip over to the other people watching this exchange, a seemingly fist-sized concentration of doubt of fear building in her chest and trying to move up to her throat, to choke away her ressolve. She felt like chickening out, like perhaps it wasn't worth it - but instead of ridicule, she saw something like encouragement in them, even in Amanda, who threw her a smile.

Her eyes flitted back to those precious rubies that seemed to be in a standstill, neither shining nor bleak, waiting patiently for Hannah to continue. To say the words that would make her eyes sparkle again or not.

And in that moment, she kicked doubt in the butt.

Clenching her fists and squeezing her eyes shut, she bowed her head, extending her hand out to the brunette. "Koi, I would really, _really_ like to be your friend and for everyone to know that I am. You're a fun, charismatic and kind girl, no matter how much I might've acted otherwise in the past, and I would be _proud_ of being a friend of someone with a heart as full of love as yours."

Akko mulled the question, astounded at the length Hannah was willing to go to expose herself. All because she cared this much for her. It was special and Akko had been a fool to think that their friendship hadn't meant enough to the girl in the cute ponytail. But still...

"No, I won't shake your hand on that," Akko spoke matter-of-factly.

The British girl swore she heard her heart crack at the rejection. "O-oh. I see. W-well, I... I can't blame you for not wanting to be my friend after everything that I said." The British girl felt nauseous, hands already shaking as anxiety begun to rear its ferocious head.

"Don't be silly, of course I want to be your friend," Akko smiled brightly like a hundred Sorcerer Stones at Hannah, whose eyes squinted and mouth contorted in confusion. "Buuuut~ we already shook our hands on that the other day, remember? So, no, we're doing it differently this time." The brunette left her seat and walked over to the auburn-haired girl, who couldn't help but breathe a bit more nervously at the approach. Her body and her hands shook a bit more, despite how much she tried to keep it down, and Hannah absolutely hated herself in that moment.

And then, Akko placed the palms of her hands over the back of Hannah's to diminish her tremors. That seemed to do the trick as, bit by bit, the nervousness in the aristocrat's body evaporated under the comforting touch. Pleased that Hannah had calmed down, Akko took a step and held the small finger of her right hand out. "I want you to pinkie swear on it."

"O-oh," Hannah couldn't help but involuntarily snort at the break of expectations. Leave it to Akko to forgive someone so easily and propose something so childish, but still so loving that you couldn't help but have your heart warmed by it. "Okay, fine," the Brit rolled her eyes with a grin she couldn't help herself from having, jutting her pinkie out and holding her hand at shoulder height. "What on, Koi?"

"Hmm, lessee..." Akko's lips pouted as she rolled her jaw in thought, giggling a bit before looking to Hannah's eyes with boundless mirth. "Tooo be super big best friends forever and ever! How's that sound to you, Han-Han?"

"Alright, that's reasonable enough." Hannah nodded. "I swear on being super best all-that-you-said." She moved to grasp the other girl's finger in her hold, but Akko leaned back, holding her arm away just a second before.

"Nuh-uh, I'm not done," Akko's expression grew smug and playful, "you also have to treat me to a nice meal to make up for being a silly dork~"

Hannah had to hold herself not to facepalm and ruin the moment. "By the Nines... okay, fine, I'll take you out to eat too." She didn't wait for the brunette to pull a Darth Vader and alter the deal any further, grasping her pinkie and shaking on their friendship a second (and now fully committed) time.

"I also promise to always keep your emotions and needs in mind," Akko amended earnestly and wholeheartedly as they shook. "Okay?"

Hannah smiled as their hands parted, hers moving up to her mouth as she giggled behind it. "It's a deal, Koi."

They took their seats with their own teams, both relieved from releasing the weight of guilt and remorse they had been holding on their shoulders. Once the ordeal was over, Amanda was, invariably, the first person to drop her two cents. "Tch, is that what the hullabaloo was all about? You were scared of being friends with Akko? I've seen you being stupid, England, but this one just takes the cake."

"I am quite aware, Amanda," Hannah stated as she took her chair beside her roommate. "And I am sorry that I acted the way I did. However, it's pretty mean of you to rub it in after Akko and I already made up on it, you know."

"Yeah!" Akko piped up from her seat between mouthfuls of food, her appetite already restored. "Thewe's no neef to," she gulped down a large portion of her lunch, "be a poophead about it!"

Amanda held her hands up, shaking them. "Sheesh, don't get so defensive and lemme finish my point, lovebirds." The American promptly ignored the automatic flustered protests from both of them. "What I was trying to say is that going all this length wasn't necessary, England. We all already considered you a friend since you joined us at class and lunch and whatnot. You're already a part," she held an index finger up, rolling it around along with her wrist to indicate the entire group, "of this."

Hums of approval followed from everyone else, while Constanze, ever the utilitarian, reused the message she'd written on her board.

The girl was now blushing furiously at the overwhelming feeling of acceptance she felt in that moment. Hannah had been so accustomed to her skeptical heart, always too doubtful of others to really let almost anyone in, that she had been blind to the honest friendships being extended to her. Barbara sheepishly rubbed circles on her back, smiling sadly as she realized the predicament Hannah had been stuck in. "Sorry, Han, I didn't know you thought you weren't a part of the group. If I did, I would have encouraged you to join in sooner."

"It's fine. I-I am just glad to be part of this," Hannah sputtered, scratching the back of her neck. "Thanks, everyone."

"Ain't no big deal, England," Amanda nodded wistfully, pleased at herself. "Just be prepared, because you're now considered eligible for double teasing from yours truly. Consider it a membership benefit."

Hannah placed her elbows on the table and held her hands together to rest her chin on. The left corner of her mouth raised, forming a dimple, and she leveled a nonplussed and eyebrow-raised stare back at Amanda. It was her trademark 'bitch, please' look. "Really, now? I doubt your across-the-pond American sensibilities could hold a candle to the wit of a British aristocrat, O'Neill."

"Oh, is that a challenge, Princess?"

"Why, perhaps it is. Unless you," she couldn't hold back a smirk, "are too afraid to take me on, cowgirl."

"You're _so_ on." 

Akko smiled as she watched Hannah naturally mingling with the others once the filter she'd created was removed. In a roundabout way, by not letting Hannah go and building a friendship with her, she had helped the Brit to finally open up and find new friendships. And Akko was delighted with the results.

(It would be many hours before Akko broke into a cold sweat in her bed and screamed in a panic, waking her roommates and half the dormitory wing up, as she realized she had accidentally asked Hannah on a date.)

Speaking of her roommates. For the quietest member of the three teams, watching from her seat as the girls talked, laughed, teased each other and occasionally set fire to something (thanks to Akko's diligence in being a walking and talking chaos), so it was that perhaps a quiet life wasn't what Sucy wanted. No, what she wanted was for her colleagues... her _friends_ to be cheery, together and full of life. For what was possibly the first time in her once lonely life, the happiness of those around her were as important as her fungal endeavors, and not even her penchant for acting like she didn't care would hold her back from looking out for them. 

And if Hannah was sincere in her friendship with Akko, then Sucy was happy that they were there for each other. 

And _that_ was the corniest train of thought she'd allow herself to have for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is a reference to Diamond is Unbreakable. 
> 
> The angst is over ~~for now~~ so expect more of the weeb fun you came for from the next chapter onward!
> 
> Also, I'd like to hear your honest thoughts on this fic so far - characterization, pace, humor etc. as I've been rather insecure in my writing lately.


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